Theme park refurbishment and reopening schedule for March 2012 and beyond

Published: February 24, 2012 at 9:32 AM

Here's the latest schedule for what will be opening and reopening at the Disney, Universal and SeaWorld theme parks in Central Florida and Southern California this year: [*with updates from the comments.]

Disney California Adventure's Grizzly River Run reopens March 9. *The Disneyland Monorail will reopen that day, after a short refurbishment beginning Feb. 27.

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man reopens with its HD 3D upgrade sometime in March. No specific date yet.

The first two elements of the new Fantasyland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, the relocated Dumbo and the Great Goofini (formerly Goofy's Barnstormer) also reopen in March - *starting with Dumbo on the 11th.

Rumor has it Big Thunder and Indiana Jones at DLR will be down for extended refurbs starting sometime in September. Bad news for me as I am hoping to visit the SoCal parks around that time. Honestly, I can probably miss Big Thunder, but IJ is a must do. I will postpone the trip if it is down.

I'm sure the upgrade of Spider-Man has to do with installing new projectors and the screens will almost definitely need to be replace by new ones capable of showing off the higher definition projections. You wouldn't want those shiny new animations to be shown on the equivalent of a brick wall, would you?

Anyone have an idea what's in store for Test Track? A five month refurb doesn't actually seem long enough to rebuild the entire ride experience. I imagine the track will stay the same but the sets will be replaced and a new storyline put in place. I'm hoping for some Next Gen love for Test Track...

According to Screamscape, The Little Mermaid and the Be Our Guest restaurant are slated for a late September opening.

As for Test Track I agree that 5 months is way too short to make any major alterations to layout, which is a shame as the indoor section is all a bit stop-start and the outdoor section is a) over too quickly and b) is actually pretty dull. In fact it replicates almost exactly the experience of travelling down to I4 to get to Epcot, (not exactly classic Disney fantasy imagineering). I really hope they can pull something out of the bag. Radiator Springs Racers shows what they can do with the technology and a decent storyline, but Test track as it's been just ain't in that league...

The new Habit Heroes exhibit in Innoventiions at Epcot has closed for re-imagining. The exhibit lasted only 16 days after too many complaints from people saying that this is bullying kids who are overwheight.

IJ is gonna be down for a refurb and I imagine that with the new referbeshments on Big thunder @ Walt Disney world Disney will want to also instal whatever the refurb is into all it's editions and I wouldn't be suprised if BTM gets an anamatronic or interactive que. And test track a very touchy subject for many fans will be getting a new sponser so the after show will be a showroom and I think the ride will let u make a car and than take it fr a ride or something the referbeshments on Indy I have no info on that st the moment and don't postpone a visit for 1 ride. It might be a must do but there r other rides too.